Alibaba Signs Deal to Stream Disney Animations in China

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE: BABA), Digital Media and Entertainment Group announced it has signed a licensing agreement with the Walt Disney Co (NYSE: DIS) to offer Disney animations in its Youku video streaming platform.

Under the deal, Youku subscribers will be able to see more than 1,000 Disney episodes. Customers who uses Alibaba’s set-top boxes will be able to access up to 1,000 animated series episodes as well as hundreds of Disney movies. The deal makes Alibaba the largest distributor of Disney animations in China.

“The addition of Disney content greatly enriches the library of quality international content on Alibaba’s media and entertainment ecosystem, giving us a leading edge in foreign content distribution in China,” said Yang Weidong, president of Youku. “We look forward to further cooperation with global entertainment companies, which will help increase our penetration in the family entertainment segment and strengthen Youku’s position as a leading multi-screen entertainment and media platform in China.”

According to Alibaba’s news website Alizila, Alibaba’s Youku streaming platform Youku reaches 580 million devices each day and gets about 1.2 billion views. It already has similar licensing deals with Warner Bros., Paramount, Fox, NBCUniversal and Sony Pictures Television, among others.

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